Niels Kaj Jerne Quotes

It seems a miracle that young children easily learn the language of any environment into which they were born. The generative approach to grammar, pioneered by Chomsky, argues that this is only explicable if certain deep, universal features of this competence are innate characteristics of the human brain. Biologically speaking, this hypothesis of an inheritable capability to learn any language means that it must somehow be encoded in the DNA of our chromosomes. Should this hypothesis one day be verified, then lingusitics would become a branch of biology. ~ Niels Kaj Jerne

More about the selection theory: Jerne meant that the Socratic idea of learning was a fitting analogy for 'the logical basis of the selective theories of antibody formation': Can the truth (the capability to synthesize an antibody) be learned? If so, it must be assumed not to pre-exist; to be learned, it must be acquired. We are thus confronted with the difficulty to which Socrates calls attention in Meno [ ... ] namely, that it makes as little sense to search for what one does not know as to search for what one knows; what one knows, one cannot search for, since one knows it already, and what one does not know, one cannot search for, since one does not even know what to search for. Socrates resolves this difficulty by postulating that learning is nothing but recollection. The truth (the capability to synthesize an antibody) cannot be brought in, but was already inherent. ~ Niels Kaj Jerne

A cis-immunologist will sometimes speak to a trans-immunologist; but the latter rarely answers. ~ Niels Kaj Jerne

An immune system of enormous complexity is present in all vertebrate animals. When we place a population of lymphocytes from such an animal in appropriate tissue culture fluid, and when we add an antigen, the lymphocytes will produce specific antibody molecules, in the absense of any nerve cells. I find it astonishing that the immune system embodies a degree of complexity which suggests some more or less superficial though striking analogies with human language, and that this cognitive system has evolved and functions without assistance of the brain. ~ Niels Kaj Jerne

On Staten Island, there's a ship graveyard. I'm using that a lot, even for 'Under the Dome.' When I'm dissatisfied with a location scout, I go on Google Earth. It's an amazing tool. ~ Niels Arden Oplev

It is very difficult to make an accurate prediction, especially about the future. ~ Niels Bohr

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. ~ Niels Bohr

You can recognize a small truth because its opposite is a falsehood. The opposite of a great truth is another truth. ~ Niels Bohr

I go into the Upanishads to ask questions. ~ Niels Bohr

Predition is risky, especially of the future. ~ Niels Bohr

Truth is:
I was always that kind of girl.
Truth is:
they don't make dresses any whiter than
mine.
Truth is:
I am not Demeter's daughter.
I am Heisenberg's ripe tomato
I am Niels Bohr's piece on the side.
In the winter I am a particle.
In the summer I am a wave.
And I didn't get to be queen of hell
by letting folks off easy. ~ Catherynne M Valente

One thought spectra are marvellous, but it is not possible to make progress there. Just as if you have the wing of a butterfly then certainly it is very regular with the colors and so on, but nobody thought one could get the basis of biology from the coloring of the wing of a butterfly. ~ Niels Bohr

Kids are simple creatures, ruled by greed and fear and an eternal reluctance to go to the toilet. ~ Niels Saunders

Abel has left mathematicians enough to keep them busy for five hundred years. ~ Charles Hermite

Today the telephone takes precedence over everything. It reaches a point of terrorism, particularly at dinnertime. ~ Niels Diffrient

Physics is the belief that a simple and consistent description of nature is possible. ~ Niels Bohr

Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it. ~ Niels Bohr

Truth and clarity are complementary ~ Niels Bohr

Rutherford is a man you can rely on; he comes regularly and enquires how things are going and talks about the smallest details - Rutherford is such an outstanding man and really interested in the work of all the people around him. ~ Niels Bohr

If we couldn't laugh at ourselves, that would be the end of everything. ~ Niels Bohr

An independant reality in the ordinary physical sense can neither be ascribed to the phenomenon nor to the agencies of observation. ~ Niels Bohr

I'm interested in the human more than I'm interested in building suspense. ~ Niels Arden Oplev

I think filmmaking is a strange animal because it's anti-Democratic and collective at the same time, but I think it's all about not trying to know everything better than everybody else but making the right choices. ~ Niels Arden Oplev

There are very few theorems in advanced analysis which have been demonstrated in a logically tenable manner. Everywhere one finds this miserable way of concluding from the special to the general and it is extremely peculiar that such a procedure has led to so few of the so-called paradoxes. ~ Niels Henrik Abel

An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field. ~ Niels Bohr

Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation, but as a question. ~ Niels Bohr

There are two sorts of truth: trivialities, where opposites are clearly absurd, and profound truths, recognised by the fact that the opposite is also a profound truth ~ Niels Bohr

'Deity' will be a compelling and exciting thriller with complex and interesting characters. A neo-realistic style to story and images will take the audience deep into Calcutta's many different levels. A fascinating clash between American and Indian culture. ~ Niels Arden Oplev

If anybody says he can think about quantum physics without getting giddy, that only shows he has not understood the first thing about them. ~ Niels Bohr

A deep truth is a truth so deep that not only is it true but it's exact opposite is also true. ~ Niels Bohr

The divergent series are the invention of the devil, and it is a shame to base on them any demonstration whatsoever. By using them, one may draw any conclusion he pleases and that is why these series have produced so many fallacies and so many paradoxes. ~ Niels Henrik Abel

People like him had these weird thick skins. You insult them to their face and it whistles past their ears. They take irony as compliments and barely even notice your wittiest retorts. When ~ Niels Saunders

In his wretched life of less than twenty-seven years Abel accomplished so much of the highest order that one of the leading mathematicians of the Nineteenth Century (Hermite, 1822-1901) could say without exaggeration, 'Abel has left mathematicians enough to keep them busy for five hundred years.' Asked how he had done all this in the six or seven years of his working life, Abel replied, 'By studying the masters, not the pupils. ~ Eric Temple Bell

When we read a book, we have a blurry image that's kind of physical but blurry. But we have an emotional image also. We have an emotional connection to the character. ~ Niels Arden Oplev

Copenhagen interpretation Niels Bohr's combination of instrumentalism, anthropocentrism and studied ambiguity, used to avoid understanding quantum theory as being about reality. ~ David Deutsch

A friend of ours encountered this problem with his home-built computer long ago. He wrote a BIOS that used a magic value in a particular memory location to determine whether a reset was a cold reboot or a warm reboot. After a while the machine refused to boot after power-up because the memory had learned the magic value, and the boot process therefore treated every reset as a warm reboot. As this did not initialize the proper variables, the boot process failed.
The solution in his case was to swap some memory chips around, scrambling the magic value that the SRAM had learned. For us, it was a lesson to remember: memory retains more data than you think. ~ Niels Ferguson